Saturday, December 17, 2011

Constructor: Tom Heilman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: John SPEKE (38A: John ___, English explorer who named Lake Victoria) —

John Hanning Speke (4 May 1827 – 15 September 1864) was an officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa and who is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not a lot of time this morning, so this will have to be short.

Fell asleep last night before getting to the puzzle (it happens). Woke up at 5-something and immediately sat down to solve. Even in my early-morning stupor, I solved this in under 9 minutes, which is fast. Not record fast, but fast. Might have been record fast under normal (i.e. fully awake) conditions. Did the first 3/4 lightning-fast, but then slowed a bit around the, let's say, Missouri section of the grid. Stupidly wrote in ORS instead of ERS and ended up having real trouble seeing TELETYPES (39A: Fax forerunners), despite the fact that I had the first "T" *and* the "Y." Real "D'oh" moment when I finally figured it out. Also elusive in that region was LISSOME (41D: Easily bent)—I wanted FISSILE ... is that a word? ... yes:

Easily bent, easily split. You can see my confusion. Or I can see it, at any rate. Also had trouble seeing GET TIRED, as I wanted TATTERED (37D: Run down). Everything else was a snap. Oh, I wrote in PANAMA pants at 18A: Kind of pants. So that happened.

To be brief: this is a very nice grid. High word count (70) means a very smooth grid. Grid is anchored by some lively long answers: QUICK FREEZE (23D: Way to preserve food freshness) and "I'M JUST SAYIN'" (11D: "That's my two cents"). To be clear, the latter is Great as an answer, but truly horrendous as a thing to say. It's worst when the "I'M" is dropped and it appears at the end of whatever it is you are just saying. It reads like a "f#^% you." You aren't "just sayin'," you are saying whatever you're saying in a way that is smug and condescending and cowardly. The phrase (particularly as a sign-off) is the hallmark of the person who has no ability to fashion a legitimate argument and is afraid of confrontation. It's absolutely false humility. You should never use it. See also "'Nuff said," also revolting.

Bullets:

20A: Winner over NYY in the 2001 World Series (ARI) — first answer in. Huge gimme. That series is legend—one of the best ever played.

26A: Old Testament outdoorsman (ESAU) — that's a new way of describing him. "Let's finish our pottage and then ... fly flishing!"

44A: Heroince of Bulwer-Lytton's "The Last Days of Pompeii" (IONE) — Between Bulwer-Lytton and SPEKE and DISRAELI (6D: Powerful friend of Queen Victoria), this puzzle has a very Anglophilic vibe.

53A: TV title lawyer Stone (ELI) — Good to be able to rack up these 3-letter gimmes. Never saw this show, but know that it's an ELI clue. As for the SARA clue ... ???? (1D: Actress Rue of "Rules of Engagement")

57A: Rum-flavored desserts (TORTONIS) — Never had one. Not a big rum-flavored dessert fan. Rum-flavored rum, on the other hand ...

54D: One guilty of pseudologia (LIAR) — sounds like a bad disease.

45D: Dos for dudes (STAGS) — thought "Dos" referred to hair and so had SHAGS (?!).

8D: Scandalous 1980s inits. (PTL) — another very early entry. Got it without crosses. Considered SDI, but didn't think that was "scandalous" enough. This is a clue that will be much easier for the over-40 set. If you didn't live through the whole stupid PTL scandal, how in the world would you know about it? They're not teaching that *$&% in school, are they?

84
comments:

You know what else they're not teaching in school? Chronology. Yup, the passing of years, in order, as a way of determining what was first vs what came later has been stricken from the curriculum. As an example:

Telefax - First use 1865.Teletype - First use, 1911.

This was for Mr. Emba, as I assume he's tired of making this correction for the umpteenth time.

As a baseball non-fan, my one wrong letter was our fearless leader's big, fat, first-thing-in-the-grid gimme. Is that A even close to inferable if you don't know a damn thing about baseball? Or pianists? Answer: No, it is not. Shenanigans!

@Anon my dad had this thermofax thing. It was huge and printed on this odd brown paper that had a shelf life measured in days. I do not know where it fits on your time line but I just thought I would share.

I might suggest you and Mr. Emba let go of these petty rants. i know your both intelligent but to go on and on and on about something as benign as the electronic transmission of text. Come- on. You appear as fools. I'M JUST SAYIN.

It is rather humbling when one, with smug certainty, writes in a two dollar word, AXILLA, learned through crosswords, for “Secret target”, only to learn that he has been gulled by Mr. Heilman who, in a classic feint, used the thoroughly pedestrian, basic answer of ARMPIT.

Aaargh!

Retribution was soon to come though when the cynic in me saw “Outdoor dining place”, with an “M” for the first letter and, prompted by memories of my Army days, all thoughts of elegant en plein air cafes disappeared as I wrote in MESSTENT, which evened the score.

Some terrific use of “in the language” phrases; LIVESALIE, ALLISLOST and, especially, IMJUSTSAYIN, lit up the screen and, when LISSOME appeared it was like a grace note being added to this wonderful puzzle, for which I plead with Tom:

Apiarist, apialist, same thing, no? Guess not, the automatic spell check for the comment box just to me no such word. And though Rex may not have had a record time today, something tells me tomorrow may be a Roger Bannister kind of day for him.....just sayin

@evil doug, agree about SALSA DIP. You say "pass the dip" or "hand me that salsa" but no way do you ask for the SALSA DIP, unless perhaps you have had too many margaritas and mixed the two together. I was looking for something exotic like Garam Masala and so this was my last fill.

Also had PLIABLE before LISSOME (such a lovely word) and wanted the Michelle's to be OLYMPIANS even though golf isn't coming back to the Olympic Games until 2016. I'M JUST SAYIN

Looking forward to the Christmas Day drinks meet-up here in Santa Fe with dk and Tobias and any other Rexites who wanna drop by.

This puzzle took me even longer than the usual Saturday because I was enjoying several glasses of the glogg I had just made--a recent recipe in the NYT which I highly recommend.

Very nice Herr Heilman....except crossing a foreign pianist who could spell his name with any random letters crossing a baseball abbr?Come on now. If NYY is New York Yankees why isn't the I of AZI also the team name. I cry foul.Other than that I loved it.@ Rex, Agree about Just Sayin but I like Nuf Said.@ santafefran, I also wanted something like garam masala. Wish Vegas was closer to Santa Fe so I could join in on the fun.

Im with @joho - perfect Sat. puzzle. I really liked all the "p" words and there seemed to be lots of them. I always think it would be fun to say "I'm an APIARIST." Or, that joke was lacking some JAPERY.@Rex had SHAGS for dudes do's but I thought I was so clever with RODEO.Good, fun puzzle.

Interesting parsing of "just sayin" by Rex.. It does indicate disagreement while trying to minimize it. I usually see a little twinkle in the eye when people write it, so don't read it as passive aggressive. But I tend to bias my interpretations to the more positive. It's not necessarily accurate, just a way of looking at things--- lower vigilance, less stress on me, but it might get me killed in the jungle.

Kept trying to fit BEEKEEPER in tried to identify the rebus square-JUST SAYIN!I had a lot of write-overs ESSEN/STADT SHAGS/STAGS KHAKI/CAPRI MELBORNE/DISREALI KNITTED/TAPERED and also I don't know from TOED?Is that a golf thing? finished but took me twice as long as yesterday-anyhoo my theory is if someone is doing Saturdays in less than 10 their subconscious is doing heavy lifting-so not being fully awake could be a plus-I"M JUST SAYIN!!

@santafefran and @Two Ponies: Garam masala as well. Even put massalam in, but that disappeared pretty quickly. So many answers just came so naturally, including "I'm just saying". Agree with the negative feelings about that expression.

After the Peterson/Silk puzzle I did the LAT one, which was also by Doug! Good day for him.

I battled for every square of this puzzle,often putting in word ends without knowing what the word was. Hand up for ShAG, TELEgramS, flashFREEZE, but LISSOME came from just the M. As @Syndy says, sometimes the subconscious does the heavy lifting.

Now, anyone know why the new valves and seats that I installed in the kitchen faucet taps are restricting the water flow to a trickle? Can't really afford to call a plumber. Will try re-installing for the fifth time to see if I can stumble on the solution.

@syndy...When you join 2 pieces of wood by driving the nail in at an oblique angle, you TOE the joint.Usually done when you can't get a better angle on it.Any real woodworkers here will undoubtedly have a better explanation.

Our late shed (smashed by Halloween Storm), built by non-woodworker husband, had lots of TOEd joints.

Yes, a very smooth easy-medium Sat.I liked it too. I actually knew SARA Rue. I've seen her on Ferguson. But, Rex is right with ???. She is a secondary character on sit-com that has had about 4 different time slots. The best known actors on the show are David Spade and Patrick Warburton. If you want to see Patrick at his best try the Soarin' Over California ride at Disneyland.

I was in my 40's in the 1980's and had no clue what PTL scandal was all about. Had to Google it to find it was about Bakker & co. I'd say you would have to be an Evangelical Christian to know this one. I remember child abuse and day-care scandals from the 1980s, quickly followed by Savings & Loans.

as in, just sayin there may be other possible explanations for your not knowing about PTL. I certainly did not mean to imply I am superior because my schadenfreude made this one accessible to me. That would also be wrong. Oh, so wrong.

Always good to see a happy Rex face. Just sa... naw, that's already been done to death.

NYT is about the only puz I do anymore. LA Times now has a looo(zzz)ooong commercial for you to sit thru first, so that kinda sucks. Oh yeh... Still doin' the BEQ puz -- can't forget him! That dude's the best. Just sa... oops.

RexWorld is about the only blog, too. WordPlay blog scares the bejeesus out of me anymore -- keep worryin' I'll get charged for lookin' at it, the way it keeps askin', "Are you sure you wanna look some more?" I mean, man, it's just somebody like me's comments, not a Purlitzer prize candidate. Snort.

Anybody else lose the timer on AcrossLite? Anybody have a hint on how to get it back?

Quite enjoyed the puzzle. HTG for the meaning of manducate, but in my "rules for solving" that's okay because I learned something. The rest, though more difficult for me than for Rex, was gettable through crosses. EATS may have been too, but I looked up manducate before giving myself a chance in that section.

Also, I must admit I got lucky on the ARI ARRAU cross. I had no idea about either answer.

And I wanted clearcut for SQUADCAR. I like my answer better; where I live squad cars are not black and white, though I've certainly heard the phrase in the cop shows I occasionally watch.

Also, @archaeoprof--I agree about the twinkle accompanying JUST SAYIN. And, as a transplanted midwesterner living in the South, I've also noticed that wonderful use of "God Bless." It is possible to be considered polite while saying the meanest, most horrible things about a person if one just inserts "God Bless" or "bless her heart": Little Tommy, God bless him, he's dumb as a post. Jane Doe, bless her heart, she's such a slut. And on, and on, and on.

But I digress. I loved the puzzle, but I enjoyed nothing today so much as "You Make My Pants Want to Get Up and Dance." I've never heard it before (I think I only know Dr. Hook for "On the Cover of the Rolling Stone" and "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman.") The video actually did make my pants want to get up and dance, and so I did. I loved it so much I posted it to my Facebook page, and "sharing" on Facebook is something I almost never do!

So thank you, Rex. For many things, but mostly, today, for that video clip.

Rex made my day yesterday by featuring a clip of Cesaria Evora, a soulful queen of world music (from Cape Verde, an island nation and part of Lusophone West Africa). I just heard that she passed away today. I hope that a few more people will learn of her great talent because of Rex's eclectic musical post.

In honor of the appearance in the puzzle (well, in the clues) of Queen Victoria, who went home after her coronation in 1837 and gave her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel a bath, I am changing my avatar back to Roxie.

Yeah! A Saturday that went down smoothly. New England was tough until I got the Secret target. Having 'agent' for while as the black suit thingy definitely got in my way.

I agree that SALSA DIP is redundant, and that I'M JUST SAYIN' is obnoxious. It seemed cute about the first hundred times I heard it, then just didn't. I agree with Rex's assessment that it's just a weak form of passive-aggression, even with a "twinkle."

This one looked grim at first. Could barely get a toehold anywhere, let alone confirming crosses. TELETYPES was my one anchor and I sloooowly built out from there. First breakthrough was JOISTS / STADT / TIMEX / I'M JUST SAYIN'. Never heard of SPEKE or TORTONI, but got them from crosses. Finished in 54 minutes, pretty good for me for a Saturday. Phew!

Loved IMJUSTSAYIN '!!! I thought it was a shout out to her beloved PuzzleGirl...and am genuinely surprised by this particular rant, considering it's practically her catch phrase and she is one of his favorite people!I think i learned that phrase on this blog!I like it, complete with twinkle and am, not surprisingly with @foodie in not looking for the insult but the humor first.

My sisteralways prefaces comments with "now don't take this the wrong way..." now THAT's one i could live without.

This puzzle much easier than yesterday's bottom half disaster for me.I too had ShAG which i more associate with women and Austin Powers, so that gaveme pause...

Also the ER/OR thing made TELETYPE my last answer.Spent a long time trying to remebr what those air chutes the French used to use prefax...wait, werethose called TELETYPES? They were called something French-sounding, not surprisingly.

Had the whole left side of the grid completed first and worried it was another split puzzle again...But the XQ and Z tipped me to look for a J on the otherside and i was rewarded by finding two!In search of a nice pangram, It helped me avoid the PAnAMA mistake, which I too considered first. It's neat that those two words are so close, and seem puzzleworthy somehow...when N becomes J...PAJAMA CANAL.There is an idea in there somewhere tryng to get out!

Some of my best puzzle ideas are triggered from mistakes like that, so it's a real upside to not being perfect! ;)Right @foodie?

Medium for me but got totally stymied in the NW where salsa dip just wouldn't come to mind (mixture was an odd descriptor, plus the redundancy). Had -AL-ADI- and still couldn't get it. -ARA Rue was a complete unknown, -TL didn't ring any bells to this 30 year old even after the reveal and I still don't get -AE. Can someone explain?

The ARRAU/ARI cross would have been annoying too, except that I believe he was in another puzzle fairly recently. Plus, couldn't think of any other baseball team whose location name started -RI.

@ jberg, You are so right about salsa.I could say I'm going out to get some salsa and you could ask if I was going to the grocery or the record store.That's one reason I love hanging out with you people. I learn the darnedest things!

A nice Saturday, possible but required some work. I completely agree with Rex about I'm just sayin..feel the same about the mysterious (for me as a non-Southerner) "bless his/her heart" which has always seemed to me as sending a totally mixed message because it is inevitably followed by something uncomplimentary. Doesn't soften it at all for me, but maybe for native speakers...

Yes, it happens so often: I'm at a restaurant and ask for some salsa---and the waiter breaks into dance. "No, no---I meant salsa DIP, senor." Then I go to a record store, ask for salsa, and they give me a jar of chip dip!

Context, people. Of course there are different meanings to "salsa"---and a majority of other English words that don't require us to redundantly over-describe them.

"I ordered some Suzette, I said'Could you please make that Crepe?'"---Bob Dylan

The NYY clue threw me. I can see why, on a scoreboard, they would use that abbreviation. But if a clue has the Postal Code followed by the team initial, well, I went with AZD.Had ALL kinds of fun with that!Otherwise, loved the puzzle!

This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.

All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)

Acme...Huh?" those air chutes the French used to use prefax...wait, werethose called TELETYPES? They were called something French-sounding, not surprisingly."Do you mean pneumatic tubes? (google that term and "Stew Leonard" and you'll see a disappointing misuse by an all-American tax evasion success story.)Is that what you mean? Or do you mean the Minitel...

@titamerci! i WAS trying to think of minitel/pneumatic tubes!They were still using those when everyone had moved on to faxes... Today's menopause moment conflated minitel(etype). I appreciate you wading thru all my gobbledegook to actually help me. Besos!

Given the way my workdays go, I am almost always a day late to the blog, so don't get to post because I figure y'all won't still be reading. (But that doesn't stop me from checking it out every day and enjoying it tremendously. Like cracking up about @evil's dancing waiter.)

Anyway, can't resist chiming in about SALSA. My understanding of this word in its Spanish meaning is it's like pesto or our crossword friend olio; that is, it means a mixture of some kind (literally, "sauce"), whatever works for your particular tastes or what you've got in the fridge. So SALSADIP seemed to me just wrong; though I guess I'll accept the idea that if it has sour cream in it, it's a dip -- but then the clue should have said so. Y'know, just sayin...

After reading our leader's ravings, I must admit I received a mental image of an old fashioned, bespectacled, thin lipped school marm, slapping a ruler on her desk.

Secondly, there are just "salsas" for many things, including salsas for dipping. Ergo, salsa dip is OK by me. Nothing redundant about that. Nuff said.

The term "just sayin" can be used in many ways for many reasons. I have never heard it used passive-agressively. There is almost nothing in this world that is black and white except for perhaps a squad car.

@Evil D, You & I think alike. We must be the 35th King's of something.

Spacecraft here. Well,ya can't please everybody. This was a Tale of Two Puzzles for me: the West, done with three Googles in the NW corner and despite starting with the actual term FLASHFREEZE in place of the made-up phrase in the answer; and the inscrutable (and totally unfinished) East. JAPERY never occurred to me; yeah, I know it's a real word, but outside of Mr. Roget, I couldn't name five poeple who EVER used it--and neither can you. And there's"lowest" number on a clock: I suspected a Shortzy twist on that one, but my brain just flat-out missed that turn. I should know by now: you can't drive down a snaking back road like you do on the Autobahn. And Will's Fridays and Saturdays? Hairpins, baby. Outdoor dining place-MESSTENT.I guess, strictly speaking...tents have FLAPS, not "doors" per se... but really. One thinks of outdoor as being, you know, outside. It's a BRUTAL clue. And now tell me how to make the leap from "Go! Go! Go!" to FLOORIT. First of all, I'd have to leave the stadium, or arena, where I'm rooting for my team, and climb into a getaway car. What did I do, heist the gate?? Even with FLO___ in place I had no chance. Oh, and here's the sockdolager: run down for GETTIRED. No, no: run down means TIRED, not GETTIRED. Or run down means HITAPEDESTRIAN while you're FLOORingIT. The clock clue is my bad; I'll admit I should've gotten that one. But the rest? Horrible, rotten clues; you might as well ENCRYPT the whole thing in, say, Sanskrit.